Buddha Quotes

In His first sermon to the five ascetics in the Deer Park near
Varanasi, the Buddha spoke of the Four Noble Truths. The Four
Noble Truths summed up, in a systematic formula, are the central
teaching of the Buddha.

The Noble Eight-fold Path, discovered
by the Buddha Himself, leads to Nirvana. It avoids the extreme
of self-torture that weakens ones intellect and the extreme of
self-indulgence that retards ones spiritual progress.

The Buddha's discovery of the
solution to the problem of suffering began with the recognition
that life is suffering. This is the first of the Four
Noble Truths. If people examine their own experiences or look
at the world around them, they will see that life is full of suffering.
Suffering may be Physical or Mental

Physical Suffering

Physical suffering takes many
forms. People must have observed at one time or another, how their
aged relatives suffer. Most of these aged suffer aches and pains
in their joints and many find it hard to move about by themselves.
With advancing age, the elderly find life difficult because they
cannot see, hear or eat properly. The pain of disease, which strikes
young and old alike, is unbearable, and the pain of death brings
much grief and suffering. Even the moment of birth gives pain
both to the mother and the child that is born.

The truth is that suffering
of birth, old age, sickness and death are unavoidable.
Some fortunate people may now be enjoying relatively happy and
carefree lives, but it is only a matter of time before they ,
too, will experience suffering. What is worse, this suffering
must be borne alone

.

Mental
Suffering

Beside physical suffering, there
are also various forms of mental suffering. People feel sad, lonely
or depressed when they lose someone they love through separation
or death. They feel irritated or uncomfortable when they are forced
to be company of those whom they dislike or those who are unpleasant.
People also suffer when they unable to satisfy their limitless
needs and wants.

Happiness in Life

When the Buddha said that there
is suffering in life, He did not deny that there is happiness
also. On the contrary, He spoke of various kinds of happiness,
such as the happiness of friendship, the happiness of family life,
and so on. But all these kinds of happiness are impermanent and
when one loses them, one suffers. For example, one may like a
pleasant and charming person and enjoy his or her company. But
when one is separated from that person, the happiness turns into
suffering. One suffers because of one's attachment to pleasures
that do not last.

People often remain
unaware of the inevitable sufferings of life because they are
distracted by temporary pleasures.

The Buddha had observed that
life is suffering. Before He Could find a solution to the problem
of suffering in life, He had first to look for the cause of suffering.
The Buddha was just like a good doctor who first observes a patient's
symptoms and identifies the cause of the illness before prescribing
a cure. The Buddha discovered that the direct causes of suffering
are desire or craving, and ignorance. This is the
truth of the cause of suffering, which is the Second Noble Truth.

Craving

Craving is the deep-seated desire
that all living beings have for the pleasures of the senses, and
for life itself. For instance, people always seek to enjoy good
food, entertainment and pleasant company. Yet none of these can
give them complete and lasting satisfaction. After the fine meal
has been eaten , the beautiful music heard and the pleasant company
shared, one is still not content. One would like to enjoy these
pleasures again and again, and for as long as possible.

People who desire to own many
things can never be fully satisfied too. Like children in a toy
shop, they crave for all the attractive things they see around
them. But like children too, they soon become dissatisfied with
what they already have and desire for more. Sometimes, they can
hardly eat or sleep until they get what they want. Yet when they
succeeded in getting what they want, they may still find their
happiness short-lived. Many will be too worried for the safety
and condition of their new possessions to enjoy it. Then when
the object they possess eventually breaks into pieces and has
to be thrown away, they will suffer its loss even more.

When we have obtained something
that we desire, we may want more and more of it, and so greed
arises. Because of desire and greed, people will lie, cheat and
steal to get what they want. Uncontrolled desires can also lead
to addiction, for example, to smoking, drinking and overeating,
all of which lead to suffering and cause mental and physical harm.

If one is prevented by another
person from getting what one desires, one may feel anger with
that person. Desire when obstructed can lead to illwill and anger.
This in turn can lead to harsh words, violent quarrels and even
fights or killings. All this is suffering.

Ignorance

Craving or desire is like a great
tree having many branches. There are branches of greed, of ill
will and of anger. The fruit of this tree is suffering, but how
does the tree of craving arise ? Where does it grow ? The answer
is that the tree of craving is rooted in ignorance. It grows out
of ignorance.

Ignorance is the inability
to see the truth about things, to see things as they really are.
There are many truths about the world which people are ignorant
of because of the limitations of their understanding.

Science has shown, for instance,
that there are sounds that people are unable to hear and waves
of light which they are unable to see. People would be totally
unaware of radio waves, or ultraviolet light rays if special instruments
had not been developed to enable them to observe these things.
So long as people remain ignorant of things about the world in
which they live, they suffer from all kinds of misunderstandings
and delusions.

When people develop their minds
and acquire wisdom through study, careful thought and meditation
they will see the Truth. They will see things as they really are
They will understand the suffering and impermanence of life,
the Law of Cause and Effect and the Four Noble Truths.
By overcoming craving and ignorance, they will attain happiness
and Enlightenment just as the Buddha did about 2500 years ago.

The Buddha's
realization of the end of suffering and his attainment of Nirvana
at the age of thirty-five, crowed his search for Truth with success.
For six years, the Bodhisattva had spared no effort to find a
solution to the problems of suffering. He had tried the principal
method of ending suffering and had found them wanting. Eventually
he found his own solution to the problems of life.

Confidence
in the Buddha's Teaching

Having
realized the Truth through his own efforts, the Buddha offered
it to all who ready to listen.

There
is an old story of a turtle and a fish. The turtle lived on land
as well as in the water while the fish only lived in the water.
One day, when the turtle had returned from a visit to the land,
he told the fish of his experiences. He explained that creatures
walked rather than swam. The fish refused to believe that dry
land really existed because that was something beyond his own
experience. In the same way, people may not have experienced the
end of suffering, but it does not mean that the end of suffering
is not possible.

A patient
must have confidence in an experienced doctor, otherwise he will
never take the medicine that the doctor has prescribed him and
will not cured of his sickness. Similarly, people must have confidence
in the Teaching of the Buddha, who has shown that end of suffering
is really possible.

Truth of
the End of Suffering

The end of suffering is the final
goal of the Buddha's Teaching. It can be experienced by anyone
here and now. For example, when greed and anger arise in one's
mind, one experiences unhappiness and when thoughts of greed and
anger cease, one's mind becomes happy and peaceful. To end
suffering completely, one must remove desire, ill will and
ignorance. This is the Third Noble Truth of the End of Suffering.

Happiness

The Buddha taught that the end
of suffering is supreme happiness. Every step towards the end
of suffering is accompanied by ever-increasing joy. Those who
follow the Teaching of the Buddha live happily without greed among
those who are overwhelmed by desire. They live happily without
anger among those who harbour ill will. The more people free themselves
from desire, ill will and ignorance, the greater will be their
happiness. When they have completely overcome desire, ill will
and ignorance, they will know the supreme happiness as experienced
by the Buddha.

Enlightenment

By putting the Buddha's Teaching
into practice, people too can achieve supreme Enlightenment. Enlightenment
has countless qualities, of which perfect wisdom and great
compassion are the most important. Through perfect wisdom,
the great compassion, He is able to help countless beings to overcome
their suffering.

Experiencing
Nirvana for Oneself

The end of suffering has been
described as supreme happiness and Enlightenment. However, these
terms do not fully express the real nature of the end of suffering,
or Nirvana. Nirvana cannot be exactly put into words. Attempting
to describe Nirvana is like saying that a mango is sweet, and
that it is not like banana or an apple. One has to eat a mango
in order to know for oneself what the taste is really like. Similarly
Nirvana has to experienced for oneself.

Therefore, if people have confidence
in the Buddha's Teaching and put into practice, they can achieve
happiness peace and Enlightenment.

The Middle Path

As a youth, Prince Siddhartha
enjoyed the indulgent life of pleasure in his father's palace.
Later, when he renounced the worldly life and become an ascetic,
he experienced the hardship of torturing his mind and body. Finally,
not long before attaining Enlightenment, he realized the fruitlessness
of these two extreme ways of life. He realized that the way to
happiness and Enlightenment was to lead a life that avoids these
extremes. He described this life as the Middle Path. These three
ways of life may be compared to the the strings of different tensions
on a lute. The loose string, which is like a life of indulgence,
produces a poor sound when struck. The overly tight string, which
is like a life of extreme asceticism, similarly produces a poor
sound when struck and is moreover, likely to break at any moment.
Only the middle string which is neither too loose nor too tight,
and is like the Middle Path, produces a pleasant and harmonious
sound when stuck. So these who follow the Middle Path which avoid
the extreme of indulging one's desires and opposite extreme of
torturing one's mind and body unreasonably, will find happiness,
peace of mind and Enlightenment. This is the Fourth Noble Truth
of the path leading to the end of suffering.

Quotes

What you are is what you have
been, and what you will be is what you do now